Birth of a Reformation by A L Byers

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Title: Birth of a Reformation
The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner

Author: Andrew Byers

Release Date: December 11, 2014 [EBook #47630]

Language: English

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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

For consistency, all bible references have been made to have no spaces in the numbers, for example 'Thess. 2:3,4' or
'Rev. 17:4-6'.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences
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Dr. Warner

Birth of a Reformation

or

The Life and Labors of

Daniel S. Warner

By A. L. Byers

crucifix

"It shall come to pass, that at evening time

it shall be light."

FAITH PUBLISHING HOUSE

P. O. Box 713

Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044

To the

Generations
Following

Publisher's Preface

Year 1966

This volume, a reprint of the book originally published in 1921 and out of print for many years, is in response to a

long felt need that this biography of D. S. Warner, along with a brief mention of a few of his associate ministers and
gospel workers, should be available to the readers of the present generation and those to follow, should the Lord
extend time.

The original book is herewith reproduced without alteration or change, except a very few minor omissions, and

accounts of events and conditions existing after the period of Bro. Warner's life.

The reader should bear in mind that Bro. Warner's coming out of sectism was a gradual process over a period of

time leading to the climactic step, and any improper or questionable action on his part while involved in sects was
merely a result of his lack of clear light and understanding of God's Word. After the light broke through, he himself
renounced these practices.

In 1878 D. S. Warner wrote: "The Lord ... gave me a new commission to join holiness and all truth together and

build up the apostolic church of the living God."

Bro. Warner and his associates, discerning the impossibility of the true church existing within the framework of

denominationalism, declared their freedom from the "sin of sectism and division" and instituted the "evening light"
restoration movement in the latter part of the nineteenth century in direct fulfillment of Bible prophecy. See Zech. 14:7.
These vital Bible truths, especially on the line of holiness and the nature of the church, which those reformers
proclaimed, are imperative today in preserving the church after the apostolic pattern.

Many reformations have come to the religious world since the decline of the apostolic church from its pristine glory of

the first century. Yet the nineteenth century reform is more complete, radical and fundamental than any previous
movement. A historian has penned this significant observation: "No sooner had D. S. Warner and others begun to
preach as men had not preached for time out of mind than men saw in their message the grandest truths the mind of man
is capable of receiving. They saw the church built up by Christ, led and organized by the Holy Spirit, the names of
whose members are in the Lamb's book of life, which takes the Scriptures as its only discipline, and fellowships every
blood-bought soul. Here is real Christian unity.

"Despised and rejected in 'religious' circles, these men preached more real Bible truth in one sermon than one would

expect in months of the ordinary kind. They preached profound truths; and it created a furor wherever they went.
Thousands received Scriptural light. Many joyfully embraced the great truths they heard and spared neither pains nor
money to spread the message everywhere."

In his book, "The Cleansing of the Sanctuary," Bro. Warner wrote thus on the subject of exclusiveness: "Christ is an

exclusive Christ; there is none beside him. The faith that he gave us is an exclusive faith; no other saves the soul. The
truth of God is exclusive in its nature; everything contrary to it is false. The kingdom of Christ is exclusive. It is a stone
that breaks everything else to pieces. The one church that Jesus founded and named, and which is his own body, is also
exclusive, for there is only 'one body in Christ.' During the reign of pagan persecution the rulers offered to stop the
bloody martyrdom and allow the Christians to worship God in freedom, if they would confess that the pagan idols were
also real Gods. This they could not do, but chose rather to die. And on this very point of exclusiveness is the present
offense of the cross. People would not seriously object to God's ministers setting forth the church as contained in the
Scriptures, if we would recognize their earth-born institutions as being also God's churches. But this we cannot do and
be honest before God and faithful to his Word. "There is but one household of faith. Christ does not have a plurality of
wives. He has but one bride, and she has no sisters. Thus saith her husband, 'My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is
the only one of her mother.' S. of Sol. 6:9."

"Three score and ten" years ago Bro. Warner's earthly career in the service of the Master was ended, yet God in His

infinite plan has preserved a holy remnant through the intervening years which has retained and maintained those
precious original reformation truths. The two witnesses (Rev. 11:11)—the Word and the Spirit—have resumed their
rightful positions as Governors of the church in this "evening time" of the gospel day. Jesus Christ will find His Church
"without spot or wrinkle" when He comes again for His Bride.

—THE PUBLISHERS

[Pg 5]

[6]

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—ANDREW L. BYERS

May, 1966

Author's Preface

Year 1921

A quarter century has elapsed since the passing of D. S. Warner from the scenes of his earthly activity, and full forty

years have gone since the beginning of the great reform of which his labors constituted so large a part. While there are
many still living whose personal knowledge of him and his ministry will suffice to them for an encouraging testimony of
Christian attainment and of God's marvelous use of human instrumentality when permitted to have his way, the time has
come when the absence of any published account of this remarkable man begins to be felt. The rising generation and the
generations that follow should have access to a study of such an example of Christian devotion and usefulness, as well
as of God's faithfulness to one who will fully trust him. When it was announced that a biography was contemplated, the
proposition at once met with hearty approval and encouragement.

That due to the lapse of years there should be some difficulty in securing the necessary data with reference to his

early life is of course consequential. His brothers and sisters are all deceased. A nephew and a niece and some of his
earlier acquaintances were interviewed, and correspondence was had with other relatives and acquaintances. The most
valuable acquisition, however, was the use of his diaries, kindly granted by his son, D. Sidney Warner, now living in
Canton, Ohio. These diaries do not cover all of his early ministerial career, but the quotations from them will reveal the
Christian character of the man as well as show considerable of his itinerancy and of the facts of his life.

As to the source of information respecting the latter period of his ministry, when his work took the character of a

reform, recourse has been had to the files of the periodicals he edited and also to the personal recollections of some
who were pioneers with him in the movement. Of these may be mentioned as giving particular information Mrs. Allie R.
(Fisher) Allen, Lansing, Mich.; William N. Smith, North Star, Mich.; David Leininger, Akron, Ind; Mr. and Mrs. J. N.
Howard, Nappanee, Ind.; Mrs. Anna J. Slagle, Bucyrus, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Warren, Springfield, Ohio; and
Mrs. Frankie Warner, Anderson, Ind.

It was my privilege to have a personal acquaintance with D. S. Warner and to be more or less closely associated

with him during the last five years of his life. To one who never knew him personally no printed account can afford an
adequate conception of what it was to come in contact with this wonderful ambassador of God, whose presence
wrought conviction in the unregenerate, and inspired confidence and courage in the hearts of believers. The divine
manifestations in his preaching, his prayers, and his ministrations can not be told. Many very striking instances of
physical healing which we have not space to speak of attended his ministry; but that these pages may reveal, if in no
other light than the historical, that here is an example of true consecration, devotion, courage, diligence, humility, faith,
patience, kindness, self-denial, and the Christian graces generally, that is worthy of being followed, is the earnest hope
of

The Author.

Year 1921

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION
15

A glance over Christian era—Early church divinely governed—Spiritual decline—A false church—

Reformations—Sixteenth century reformation—Human rule—Characteristics of true church—A final
reformation—Evil of sects—Protestantism in Revelation—Wondrous times upon us—God's call to his
people—D. S. Warner a reformer—The correct attitude—Counterfeit movements.

II. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE
34

Emigration westward—Settlement in Ohio—David Warner family—Born a weakling—Paternal and

maternal influences—Tributes to mother—Location in Crawford County—A chosen vessel—His boyhood
character—Removal to Williams County—A school teacher.

III. CONVERSION, COLLEGE, AND CALLING
44

The question of religion—A Catholic and Lutheran community—Tries to be an infidel—Conviction by

the Spirit—Attends dances—Conversion—Attends Oberlin College—Preparation for ministry.

IV. CHURCH OF GOD (WINEBRENNERIAN)
51

The Scriptural name—Winebrenner's view of the church—Organization of Elderships—Growth and

extent westward—Winebrenner's failure.

V. FIRST YEARS IN MINISTRY
59

Gifted as an evangelist—Marriage—Death of wife and children—His physical description—New

Washington revival—Diary accounts—Prejudice against sanctification—Meeting at Basswood—A
presentiment of death—Standing committee—Rebukes youthful tobacco-user—Converses with infidel—
Reflections at end of year—Appointed to Nebraska mission—Lessons on the church—A farewell meeting.

[8]

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VI. A NEBRASKA MISSION
78

The Nebraska field—The journey—Nebraska scenes—Reflections on his bride-to-be—Builds house—

Returns to Ohio—Marriage—Resumes Nebraska work—All night in dugout—Outlook temporarily reversed
—Long trips over prairie—Wife lonely—Visit to Indian camp—Fast in snow-drift—Birth of a daughter—
Break in diary account.

VII. BACK IN OHIO FIELDS
110

On Ashland circuit—News of mother's death—Visits penitentiary—A course of studies at Vermillion

College—Embraces the cause of holiness—Seeks and obtains the experience.

VIII. THE HOLINESS AWAKENING
125

Doctrine of sanctification—Widespread interest in the subject—Prominent leaders—Holiness bands—

Doctrine opposed—Its advocates recede on the church question—A remnant who walk in the light—
Holiness editors—Jacksonville convention.

IX. A PREACHER OF HOLINESS
137

A rather new field of activity—Writes for publication—Meets with opposition—Tirade and charges by

fellow minister—Canton camp-meeting—Eldership meeting at Smithville, faces charges—Assigned to Stark
circuit—Visits father and place of conversion—Locates at Canton—Writes covenant with God—Return to
Upper Sandusky—Revival at Findlay—Reflections on New Year's Day—Expulsion from West Ohio
Eldership—Meetings at Dunkirk—Increasing vision of apostolic church—A peculiar test—Work opens in
Indiana—Death of father and daughter—Attends Ohio Holiness Camp-Meeting—Brought low with
affliction.

X. NORTHERN INDIANA ELDERSHIP
191

Opposition to Freemasonry—New Eldership formed—Becomes an associate editor—Herald of Gospel

Freedom.

XI. EDITOR AND AUTHOR
196

Locates at Rome City, Ind.—Writes book—Attends various camp-meetings—Mob at Upper Sandusky—

Remarkable healings—Eldership seeks union with Mennonites—Close of diary account—Becomes editor
of Herald.

XII. A SPIRITUAL SHAKING
210

Prophetic description of reformation movement—Old Testament figures—Shakings incident to divine

visitations—New covenant complete in entire sanctification—Prophecies that apply to these times—
Separation of wheat and chaff—Arguments against sects—Entire sanctification a remedy—Unity the hope
of God's people.

XIII. A PROPHETIC TIME
241

Many world events foreshadowed in prophecy—God has a design with man—Events of the world

grouped in periods—The four world empires—The fourth given particular attention—The little horn of
Daniel 7—Time periods of Romanism and Protestantism—Corresponding prophecies in Revelation—What
Babylon is—God's people called out of her.

XIV. THE GOSPEL TRUMPET
251

Consolidation of Herald of Gospel Freedom with the Pilgrim, forming the Gospel Trumpet—Rome City its

birthplace—Move to Indianapolis—Difficulties and privations—Paper issued irregularly—Printed on hand-
press—Move to Cardington, Ohio, and later to Bucyrus—To Williamston, Mich., in 1884, and to Grand
Junction in 1886—Substantial progress.

XV. THE CRISIS
271

Unity effected only out of and away from sects—No other alternative for God's people—Brother Warner

a reformer—His stand meets Satan's opposition, but vindicated by Spirit of God-Extracts from Gospel
Trumpet—Declares himself free from Northern Indiana Eldership—Same stand taken by Michigan saints—
Counterfeit doctrines—Trying time at Bucyrus, Ohio—His wife's estrangement—Comments by
contemporary editors—Trouble over donation by a Mrs. Booth—Letters of sympathy and encouragement
—Work spreads into various States—Emma Miller's healing of blindness—Other marvelous healings—
Defection of J. C. Fisher—How the reformation is distinguished from all other movements.

XVI. EVANGELISTIC TOURS
335

Trip into Pennsylvania—Various healings—Attacked by intoxicated man—Woman delivered from devils

—Visits Winebrennerian camp—An incident of Beaver Dam assembly—Company of singers formed—
Wonderful meeting in Indiana—Storm stayed in answer to prayer—Mob near Rising Sun, Ohio—A
Western tour—Strange manifestations at St. James, Mo.—To Denver—Meetings in Canada—In the
Southern field—Mob element in Mississippi—Visits Mammoth Cave—Visits the church in California—
Scenery of the Rockies.

XVII. THE MINISTRY OF SONG
407

Adaptation of existing hymns—Occasions that suggested various hymns—Instances of the effect of

song.

XVIII. POETIC INSPIRATIONS
422

Gifted as a poet—A book of poems—Various examples of poems.

XIX. LAST YEARS
443

Hoped for long life—Difficulty in combining writing with evangelical work—Could not remain long out of

the field—Begins to write a book on prophecy—Third marriage—Ohio River campaign—Last New Year's

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greeting—A school on the camp-ground—Last sermon—End of the journey.

XX. AS OTHERS KNEW HIM
456

Statements of various individuals—Author's statement—Reflections at his grave.

SUPPLEMENT for this reprint edition
478

ANDREW L. BYERS, Author of this Book

Office Editor Gospel Trumpet.

Music for 'The Evening Light'

[14]

The Evening Light.

D. S. Warner. (Zech. 14:7.) H. R. Jeffrey.

1. Bright-er days are sweet-ly dawn-ing, Oh, the glo-ry looms in sight!
2. Mist-y fogs, so long con-ceal-ing All the hills of min-gled night,
3. Lo! the ran-somed are re-turn-ing, Robed in shin-ing crys-tal white,
4. Free from Ba-bel, in the Spir-it, Free to wor-ship God a-right,
5. Hal-le-lu-jah! saints are singing, Vic-t'ry in Je-ho-vah's might;

For the cloud-y day is wan-ing, And the eve-ning shall be light.
Van-ish, all their sin re-veal-ing, For the eve-ning shall be light.
Leap-ing shout-ing home to Zi-on, Hap-py in the eve-ning light.
Joy and glad-ness we're re-ceiv-ing, Oh, how sweet this eve-ning light!
Glo-ry! glo-ry! keep it ring-ing, We are saved in eve-ning light!

Chorus.

Oh, what gold-en glo-ry streaming! Pur-er light is com-ing fast;

Now in Christ we've found a free-dom Which e-ter-nal-ly shall last.

[Listen (midi)] [Listen (mscz)]

I

INTRODUCTION

The life and labors of D. S. Warner are so closely associated with a religious movement that any attempt at his

biography becomes in part necessarily a history of that movement. I have therefore chosen the term, Birth of a
Reformation, as a part of the title of this book. Brother Warner (to use an appellation in keeping with the idea of
universal Christian brotherhood) was doubtless chosen of God as an instrument for accomplishing a particular work.
What that work was, why it may be called a reformation, and why, in particular, it may be considered the last
reformation, a few words of explanation by way of introduction are offered the inquiring reader.

It will be necessary to take a brief glance over the Christian era and review some of the important events and

conditions. We note the characteristics of the church in the days of the apostles, which, by reason of its recent founding
and organization by the Holy Spirit, is naturally regarded as exemplary and ideal. It had no creed but the Scriptures and
no government but that administered by the Holy Spirit, who 'set the members in the body as it pleased him'—apostles,
prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, etc. Thus subject to the Spirit, the early church was flexible, capable of
expansion and of walking in all the truth and of adjusting itself to all conditions. It was in very essence the church, the
whole, and not a section or part. The apostles and early believers did not restrict themselves and become a Jewish
Christian sect or any other kind of sect. Peter's way of thinking would have thus limited him, for as a Jew he declined
any particular interest in Gentile converts; but the Lord through a vision changed his mind and advanced his
understanding to include the universality of the Christian kingdom. The Holy Spirit in the heart was necessary, of course,
to the successful government of the church by the Spirit, otherwise he could not have been understood. There were no
dividing lines, for it was the will of the Lord particularly that there be "one fold and one shepherd." Jesus had prayed in
behalf of the disciples "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:21). These conditions of being subject to the word and
Spirit, of leaving an open door through which greater light and truth might enter as was necessary, and of possessing the
love and unity of spirit that cemented the believers together and carried them through all their persecution, constituted
the ideal and normal status of God's church on earth as he gave it beginning, of which it was ordained that there should
be but one, only one, as long as the world should endure. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in
one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4:4).

SPIRITUAL DECLINE

It was possible, of course, for the church to decline from her state of purity and thereby to forfeit her standing as the

church. So long as her conflict with paganism lasted and the various forms of persecution tended to bring into exercise
those principles and qualities which distinguished her from the world, she practically kept her first estate. When,
however, the tide turned, persecutions ceased and Christianity came into favor and to be made the state religion of the
Roman Empire, there were presented conditions favorable to every form of spiritual decline. Christians, instead of being
longer persecuted, were protected, and to profess Christianity became popular and easy. The divine features of the
church, by which she had been known for more than two hundred years, were lost. Every form of corruption came in.
Human rule supplanted the divine, Holy Spirit, rule almost universally, both in the East and the West. The bishop of
Rome, in particular, rose in prominence until he was made supreme head—pope—of the Holy Roman church. The
reader of church history knows of the long eclipse of Christianity that followed, of the darkness and ignorance that
reigned and gave to that period the name, Dark Ages. The true church, impossible of representation by such a colossal
counterfeit as then appeared in her place and became in turn a persecuting power, could continue only in fragmentary
form, in obscure places in the wilderness of the Roman Empire. She could not be manifest in her evangelizing capacity,

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but was persecuted. Millions of God's people, who refused allegiance to this false system of Christianity, were slain as
heretics during this period. Thus, in the historical foreground we see, not the pure woman representing the church of
God, but we see an apostate woman seated "upon a scarlet-colored beast," the Roman state.

"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,

having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Rev. 17:4-6).

The Word and the Spirit, the two divine authorities, were set aside. In the place of the former were the traditions of

the Roman Church, and for the latter was substituted human rule and authority. These two divine witnesses prophesied
in sackcloth during those long centuries, until such time as they should again function in their proper sphere in the church
—I say until such time: for we are not to assume that in the design of God this state of affairs should always continue.
True Christianity was not to perish from the earth. The book of Daniel prophesies of the papacy, "And he shall speak
great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws:
and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25). (See the time-periods
of the various epochs of the Christian era in our chapter A Prophetic Time.) For this vast agency of unrighteousness the
time should come when the cup of iniquity should be full and the judgments of God should be executed and his people
delivered. When Christ comes, his bride will have made herself ready, which implies that God's people will have been
gathered out of spiritual captivity and brought again to Zion. Light and truth and the Holy Spirit rule will have been
restored as at the beginning.

REFORMATIONS

Now the rise out of apostasy was expressed by a series of reformations, not by gradual ascent corresponding to the

decline. The "mystery of iniquity," which crystallized in the blasphemous "man of sin," had already begun to work in
Paul's day, and the drift into spiritual darkness on the part of the professing church was without specific opposition. But,
on the other hand, to break away from conditions apostate always means war with infernal powers. The wrong is
endured until a rising sentiment of protest breaks out with stern denunciation. God raises up instruments for this
purpose. John Wyclif, in the fourteenth century, denounced the errors of the so-called church and the conduct of the
monks and also had sufficient light to see the papacy as the "man of sin" foretold by the apostle Paul. His reform efforts,
however, centered mostly in the translation of the Bible into English, which work, in spite of the attempt by Rome to
destroy it, God graciously caused to be preserved.

John Huss, a little later, took Wyclif's attitude against the corruptions of the church and was burned at the stake as a

heretic. His martyrdom furnished the occasion for him to utter this prophecy: "You are now going to burn a goose [Huss
meaning goose in the Bohemian language], but in one hundred years there will arise a swan whom you can neither roast
nor boil." True to this prophecy, in one hundred years came the intrepid Luther, under whose leadership history records
the great reformation of the sixteenth century. Church and state were at this time united, which gave this reformation a
political prominence, as it resulted in the change to Protestantism of two strong nations, Germany and England. What
the sixteenth century reformation accomplished spiritually was, among other things, the bringing to light of the Scriptural
doctrine of justification by faith in Christ instead of by priestly absolution.

It could not have been expected that all the Scriptural truths and principles should at any time or by any one reformer

be recovered from the rubbish under which they had been buried for a thousand years. There have been numerous
reforms, bringing out various truths that had been obscured by the apostasy. Thus Truth in her progress upward to the
Scriptural level, has arisen only by successive steps, God having to use human instrumentalities that were limited by the
prevailing tendencies and beliefs of the times. Each reformer naturally dealt with conditions that were most conspicuous
from his view-point and was exercised in questions of truth that applied only to such conditions. His reform work was
not final in character, inasmuch as it left some errors still uncorrected. Hence the progress upward was by a succession
of reforms, each, as a general thing, springing from a higher level of truth and spiritual attainment than those preceding.
With the great decline into apostasy now in the past, the church of God was disposed to rise out of confusion, her
destiny being the attainment of her original standing, when it could be said that her sun should "no more go down."

HUMAN RULE INSTEAD OF DIVINE

The apostasy of the church, as one writer has expressed it, came by "ecclesiastical ambition and degeneracy." The

human element got in the way where there should have been only the divine. There is necessarily the human element in
the work of God, for Christian work is God and man working together; but in the true relation man is God's
instrumentality and is altogether in subjection to the divine Head, who rules over all. When the human element supplants,
gets in the way of, or acts in the place of, the divine, we have a fundamental error that always results in apostasy. This
human ecclesiasticism, always more or less intolerant, reached its autocratic perfection in the hierarchy of the Roman
Catholic Church and constituted the "man of sin" who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that
is worshiped; so that he as God "sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:3,4).

The spirit of human government in church affairs has shown itself in, or has followed in the wake of, every reform

movement of the past. The Spirit of God worked in the movement to accomplish good, but was always checked by this
baleful element. Luther meant well but was himself dogmatic and intolerant. He held to many doctrines of Catholicism
whose wrongs he could not see. He did not make proper allowance that others besides himself might be right, or at
least have some truth. Neither did he or his associates or followers leave the way open for God to lead into more truth,

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[20]

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much less the whole truth. Thus the reformation of the sixteenth century, while it recovered from the debris of apostasy
the doctrine of justification by faith, became the occasion for Protestant sects, human-ruled institutions, and these were
succeeded by other sects. Some of these have been as intolerant, inflexible, and as unlike primitive Christianity as the
Roman Catholic Church itself.

Church government, as humanized in the sects, has taken forms other than the hierarchic. We have the episcopal, or

rule by bishops; the presbyterian, or rule by presbyters; the congregational, or rule by the local brotherhood. Our object
here is, not to discuss which of these forms most nearly resembles or is most different from the Scriptural, but merely to
show that man rule has manifested itself in various ways.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CHURCH

The true church of God, comprising all Christians, has in her normal state under her divine head certain essential

characteristics which make her exclusively the church, the whole and not a part. These might be expressed as follows:

1. Possession of divine spiritual life. If the church does not possess this she is not Christ's body and therefore not the

church. She must know the Spirit of God.

2. Disposition to obey all Scripture and to let the Spirit have his way and rule. This constitutes her safety in matters of

doctrine and government.

3. An attitude receptive to any further truth and light. This safeguards against dogmatism and a spirit of infallibility and

intolerance, against interpreting Christianity in the light of traditions and old ideas.

4. Acknowledgment of good wherever found and the placing of no barrier that would exclude any who might be

Christians. This makes salvation, a holy life, and a Christian spirit the only test of fellowship, and disapproves all human
standards of church membership and fellowship.

We repeat that these constitute the Scriptural standard of the church and characterize her in her unity and integrity. It

is by lacking in one or more of these essentials that a sect is a sect. In the rise of the church out of apostasy any
reformation that does not develop to the full the essentials that characterize the church in her wholeness and
completeness must necessarily fall short of being the final reformation and must leave a cause for further reformation.
This is the explanation of the existence of the so-called Christian sects, viewing them in the most charitable light. The
Wesleys and their early associates sought for deeper personal spirituality as well as better spiritual association than was
afforded in the state church of England. They brought to light and gave particular prominence to the doctrine of
sanctification by faith and the witness of the Holy Spirit. Their work was a reform; but as in that day the question of
division among Christians was not prominent, nor was the question of the one true church understood or appreciated,
their work took definite form in a body humanly organized and called Methodist. The Campbells had considerable light
on the unity of the church, and proposed the Scriptures alone as a basis on which all Christians could unite. But they
blindly shut themselves in on a point of doctrine by associating entrance into the kingdom or church with the act of
immersion in such manner as to make a wall between them and other Christians who should give evidence of having
received salvation and therefore church membership, otherwise than through baptism. Thus they made themselves a
sect. John Winebrenner had the correct idea of the church as comprising all the saved, and his work was on an
unsectarian basis. Lacking, however, in the quality of letting the Spirit of God rule, eldership organizations were soon set
up, a man rule came in, and they also became a sect. Inflexible as to doctrine, they closed the door of progress on
themselves, rejected the truth on holiness, and became one of the most narrow of sects, though bearing the Scriptural
name, Church of God.

A FINAL REFORMATION

It must follow, and the assumption is already established, that a reformation which takes in full the characteristics

defining the church in her wholeness must thereby reach the New Testament standard and therefore be the last, or final,
reformation. No reformation can make good such claim if it does not proceed on whole-church lines or principles. If a
reform does progress on those universal principles, we need look no farther for, nor await future years to reveal, the
final reformation resulting in the restoration of all things to the Scriptural ideal.

The errors of the religious world are, and have been, the failure to so preach salvation truth that people may obtain

and enjoy full deliverance from sin; failure to conform to the divine standard on all lines; the human ecclesiastical system,
which hinders Holy Spirit organization and government; and separation of God's people into parties, thus making true
church relation impossible. A movement that comprehends a correction of all these, and meets the Scriptural standard,
must therefore fill the measure of reform.

Reader, it is claimed for the movement represented in the teaching and labors of D. S. Warner, that it possesses

these elements of finality, that by it God is bringing his people "out of all places where they have been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day" of Protestant sectism, and is restoring Zion as at first. It is not assumed that Brother Warner was
right on every point of doctrine or in every application of a Scriptural text, but that the movement, in addition to being
based on correct Scriptural principles otherwise, possesses that flexibility and spirit of progress by which it adjusts itself
as God gives light.

1. It teaches the Scriptural process of salvation, by which people may obtain a real deliverance from sin and have the

Holy Spirit as a witness to their salvation.

2. The truth only, and obedience thereto, is its motto; and it recognizes the rule of the Holy Spirit in the organization

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and government of the church.

3. It does not assume to possess all the truth, but stands committed thereto, holding an open door to the entrance of

any further light and truth.

4. The spirit of the movement is to acknowledge good wherever found and to regard no door into the church other

than salvation and no test of fellowship other than true Christianity possessed within the heart.

Thus its basis is as narrow as the New Testament on the one hand, and as broad as the New Testament on the other.

May it ever go forward on this line in the spread of the truth to all the world.

ANOTHER VIEW OF SECTS

In order to a clearer understanding of the reformation which took definite form in the work of D. S. Warner, as well

as why he denounced the sectarian spirit in such scathing terms, let us take further notice of the evil of sect institutions.

In the first place, sects are confusing in that, while necessarily bad as factions, they are associated more or less with

good. Many of them in their origin followed reform movements which apparently had divine sanction and were
progressive in Christianity, and many of them have upheld truth which when preached was productive of good and
brought salvation results. But here it should be noted, that whatever of salvation work has been accomplished has been
directly by the Spirit of God in individuals, quite apart from any sectarian agency. It must be said, too, that whatever has
resulted from Christian endeavor or influence and expenditure of means, whether in home or foreign lands, would have
been in greater degree had the church back of these efforts been one spiritual whole instead of many sectarian divisions.
So, when we come to apply analysis to this question of sects, we find that they are in no sense good. That they are
called churches is but the part of confusion, for in the popular mind and in actual practise it tends to identify sects with
the divine church, whereas in Scripture church always means something other than sects. Bodies that are differentiated
by the isms of men are not, and never can be, Scripturally churches, for except in the local geographical sense the
church takes no plural form. There is a distinction between the true people of God as constituting the divine church and
the human institutions called churches that have divided them and placed them in unnatural and unscriptural relations.
The true church of God, by virtue of comprising all the saved and therefore being a unit, places sects in comparison only
as false churches. A commentator truthfully remarks, "False Christendom divided into very many sects is truly Babylon,
that is, confusion." (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary.) Thus sects, because they are a hindrance to proper
Christian activity and because they present a spectacle of religious confusion, professing to be churches when they can
only be false, are bad.

This is no disparagement of the many noble men and women of God who have been connected with sects and have

gone on to their heavenly reward, whose accomplished good was from the divine source and not from the sectarian.
They may have honestly loved their sect, but in this they were honestly misplacing their love. It was the religious
association with their fellow Christians that they loved, and this, had they only known it, was not enhanced but rather
hindered by the sectarian distinction. They will not find these distinctions in heaven. If they really loved the sect, they had
to leave that love behind, for it could not be included with such Christian excellence as entitled them to heaven. Thus our
good parents and grandparents and the long line of reformers and Christian worthies receive their heavenly reward quite
independent of the sectarian institutions that divided them here.

EVIL OF SECTS IN POSITIVE LIGHT

We have shown why sects are bad in rather a negative light, as being confusion and therefore a hindrance to proper

Christian representation in the world. They are evil in a more positive sense, and it was because of this that God
prompted Brother Warner and others in the reform to utter such sharp judgment against them. Any body of Christian
people that arises and fails to qualify on all principles that mark the church of God as a whole, that proceeds to human
organization and rule instead of recognizing only Holy Spirit organization and government, at once limits itself and
becomes thereby a sect, a false representation of the church. As a false church it is soon a corrupt institution in which
human pride and every element contrary to God may exist and become active. The human will, intended for the rule of
our bodies and things terrestrial, things which belong to man's province, becomes sadly out of place when exercised in
any sphere or capacity that belongs to God. In such sphere it becomes a rival of God, a monster evil of great
proportions, a distinctive satanic spirit, always opposing the true work of God.

BEASTLY CHARACTER IN PROPHECY

This man rule in a province to which God alone has rightful claim (for indeed it exercises the prerogative of God

when it presumes to direct God's work and people) has characterized all Protestant sectism just as it did Roman
Catholicism, only in milder aspect. Man rule is represented in prophetic symbols by beastly character, whether it applies
to political or ecclesiastical government. Thus in the 7th chapter of Daniel we have the symbols of four great beasts,
representing in their respective order four universal kingdoms, as follows: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
These were temporal powers that ruled the world. When a mere temporal power is indicated the prophetic symbol
used is a dumb beast. If a beast or any part of such symbol is represented as speaking or exercising human
propensities, then the thing indicated is also an ecclesiastical power. Thus the fourth beast in Daniel 7, which represents
the Roman Empire, exercises first as a dumb animal; but directly a particular horn appears among the horns of this
beast, and is given eyes to see and a mouth to speak great things, which indicates ecclesiastical exercise, so that we
have here Rome first as a heathen power, and then as a so-called Christian power speaking great things, making war
against the saints, etc.

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In Revelation 13 we find this same Roman Catholic power represented by a beast to whom was given "a mouth

speaking great things and blasphemies" and power "to make war with the saints and to overcome them." These
anthropomorphic qualities given to a beast indicate man rule in ecclesiastical matters, a thing which is at once blasphemy
in God's sight, utterly obnoxious and foreign to him.

PROTESTANTISM IN REVELATION 13

Beginning with the 11th verse of Revelations 13, directly after the prophecy of the Roman Catholic hierarchic power,

we have the spectacle of a second beast, having two horns like a lamb but speaking as a dragon. The fact that he
speaks gives him the quality of ecclesiastical rule. In this beast we have man rule in the form of Protestantism. He has a
lamb-like aspect instead of the vicious, threatening character of Rome in the days of her power; but he has the voice of
a dragon, which betrays his diabolical spirit. He exercises as much power in the world as Roman Catholicism did before
him. He deceives by doing "great wonders," displaying spiritual manifestations. He causes people to worship the first
beast (Catholicism) by copying its standards and doing reverence to a human ecclesiastical system; and an image to the
first beast is made whenever a sect is organized. He causes the image to "speak" (exercise man rule) and to persecute
those who, instead of bowing to the sect image, are disposed to exercise in their spiritual freedom and give allegiance
alone to God.

Thus we see so-called Protestantism as a particular form of beast religion, a distinctive spirit that animates and

dominates the sectarian system. The beast element is the man rule. We are not speaking merely of human
instrumentality, which God certainly uses in his church when the will is wholly submitted to him and susceptible to his
Spirit, but of that exercise and dominance in ecclesiastical matters which, as apart from God, is distinctly human. Such
prevails more or less as a system in all sects, gives occasion for jealousy, pride, and emulation, wants to be let alone,
and opposes any reform that threatens it. This is the element which naturally becomes disturbed at the preaching of the
truth that exposes it, and which became a persecuting power against Brother Warner and all who executed the divine
judgment against false religion. In this deceptive form of evil covering almost four hundred years Satan has had his seat.
When the present reformation shall have resulted in bringing God's people out of sectarian divisions and placing them on
the whole-church basis, Satan, driven to some new project, will muster the Gog and Magog forces in a last conflict
against the saints, which shall end with the utter destruction of those forces by the judgment fires.

We have, then, Protestantism represented in two aspects: 1. As a period during which truth by a succession of

reform movements has to a considerable extent been recovered from apostasy and restored to God's people. 2. As a
system of false religion, a form of spiritual Babylon that is pervaded by a satanic spirit that deceives the world and
opposes any effort to restore the church of God to her Scriptural unity, since such effort naturally threatens the
ecclesiastical element lying at the base of organized sectarianism.

A DISPENSATION OF GOD

We apprehend, then, that wondrous times have come upon us. Great ecclesiastical systems are crumbling and are

being left destitute as God's people make their escape. This movement proceeds with no show of prominence in the
world. It causes no political disturbance, but works only in the province of genuine Christianity, silently, effectively, as
the leaven in the meal. It is altogether a spiritual movement and its discernment can therefore only be spiritual. It may
appear outwardly as only one religious body among many; for it is only when judged by the spiritual standard of God's
word that its character is seen. It is a call to those who are willing to be led of God.

The dispensations of God are in their beginning often insignificant and despised in man's eyes. God chooses things

that are not, to bring to naught things that are. The fact that Brother Warner's work was done in comparative obscurity
counts for nothing against its being the work of God. It is quality that counts. Brother Warner had the right spiritual
quality, the secret of which was letting God have his way. His entire abandonment to God in a complete consecration,
together with his adaptable temperament and gifts, made him suitable for God's use in this great work, and God chose
him. The time was at hand. Others, contemporary with him and leaders in the holiness movement, saw the evils of sects
and deplored them, but when it came to renouncing their sectarian affiliations and coming out of the spiritual Babylon in
obedience to God's call, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues," they drew back. This point of leaving the sects, abiding in Christ alone and allowing God to reestablish his
church on the primitive basis, was the real test. They longed for the time when God's people should all be one, but
chose to believe that the time was not yet. And so they have been believing for forty years, and are today in the greater
confusion. They lacked the spiritual equipment. One of Brother Warner's special endowments was that of considerable
light on the prophecies. He saw that the sectarian denominations were of the true spiritual Babylon in which God's
people were being held captive. He also had in the Spirit the prospective vision of the pure church unruled by man. His
contemporary leaders who opposed him were too blind spiritually to have such a vision; or, if they had it, were
disobedient to it.

But there were those, the humble ones, who were willing to let God have his way. At the sound of the trumpet, which

God was giving through Brother Warner, thousands have rallied to the standard of truth, and through them the truth has
been and is being vindicated. If God has his way all Christians will be led out of sects, all justified believers will be led
into sanctification, the church will be perfectly organized and governed by the Holy Spirit, the whole truth will be
preached uncompromisingly, full salvation will be held out to the world, and all will be led to cooperate and do their
part. This is the full measure of Christianity today, and is God's design with his people. Here is true Christian unity. Such
unity can come only by absolute abandonment to God, for he must be the one-making agent. Men may attempt a unity

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through some Interchurch World Movement or other plan, but no plan can represent the true Scriptural unity unless
God does the work himself. He must have the full right of way in human hearts.

Brother Warner's mission was strictly that of a reformer. It was his part to venture boldly with the truth God had

given him, with a willingness to run the gauntlet of persecutions that were sure to greet him on the right and left. His
severe denunciation of all things sectarian was consistent with his pioneer position. There first had to be an awakening, a
breaking up of old conditions, particularly of the recognition (into which the minds of people generally had settled) of the
sects as being the church of God. His work was the initial, or birth, stage of the reform.

Following the initial stage has come the constructive, which comprehends the reformation in the local sense, the sense

in which the Christian life and true ideal of the church must be exemplified in the community as something more than
theory, something that will appeal as being better than what is represented in the sects. The constructive stage calls not
so much for continual denunciation of sects as for manifesting those essential principles that characterize the church in
her unity and entirety. The responsibility is to make good the claim, and this means much. Any tendency to establish
traditions, or to regard a past course as giving direction in all respects for the future, or to become self-centered and
manifest a "we are it" spirit and bar the door of progress against the entrance of further light and truth, or in any way to
refuse fellowship with any others who may be Christians, would itself be sectarian, altogether unlike the true
reformation, which, if it be final, must necessarily be a restoration and possess universal characteristics.

For proper representation everything depends upon the understanding of, and the attitude toward, this great

movement. For any body of people to hold that the reformation is entrusted to them, or that they have become the
standard for the world, is a self-centered attitude, vastly different from that which regards the reformation as something
prophetically due, as having come independent of man, and as being greater than the people who have been favored
with its light, and that it is their part to conform to it in principle, doctrine, and everything. The great movement is in the
world, and any attempt to "corner" it or to limit it to a particular body of people could only result in making that body a
sect, or faction, while the movement itself would proceed independently.

The true spirit of the reformation will be, however, with those who measure to its standard, whether they be few or

many, and God will manifest himself accordingly. Satan has tried to becloud and defeat the movement by counterfeit
factions—bodies of people who profess to be on the reformation line, but who misrepresent the truth...